When I received my royalty statement, I can’t tell you how excited I was to discover that I made a book sale. I was also scared. Scared because I don’t know if the buyer liked my work or if they hated it and wished they had never bought it.

I know for sure that every author feels this way, as I’ve read articles and queried the matter myself via writing groups. Sending your “masterpiece”to the world is very frightening. Your putting yourself “out there” for praise as well as criticism. But now that I’ve published my e-book, I’m less afraid of producing more work.

I’m currently revising my second Novella, Flat 32 – for now this is a provisional title.

The publishing world is global now. In my research I have found that people are actively choosing to self-publish – even established writers. They’ve chosen to do so for many reasons like not being able to have more creative input with their book cover design. Having to wait over a year – sometimes longer for their masterpiece to be finally published. Not enough money being spent in promoting their work – just many reasons.

The following offer varied packages, and like anything, there are pros and cons. Think about what it is that you want to do i.e. Do you want to sell an e-book and/or physical book? Do you want to sell your book globally or just in certain parts of the world? … There are so many things to consider.
The following are just a few self-publishing establishments:-

I wondered about this for a long time, but when it came down to it, all I need is one e-reader. I have a kindle, which I purchased direct from Amazon last year. One of my worries was the cover art i.e. how would it look on the screen for each e-reader…This is my first book, so I only want to send my best work out to the world.

One day I queried the cover art with Amazon, as they state it has to meet a specific size. Well I had GREAT difficulty, as the cover art I created was INDEED acceptable i.e. it meets the resolution requirements etc. but it was not the size Amazon specified. I created my cover (back and front) using Windows Paint and a free program called Irfanview, which I downloaded.

When I queried it with both the Kindle and Createspace community, they stated not to worry about it. The measurement Amazon wanted was meant to fit the Kindle Fire screen, but nonetheless it will just be a little smaller with the measurements I had. Now this may bother some people, but not me. I did the best I could and that’s good enough for me.
I’m not gonna buy any more E-readers. I feel all I need is one, but do what you feel you should do.

I know this is easier said than done, especially if you have a job, children and other responsibilities, but it’s necessary in order to finish your book. I’m an early bird, so I like to work on my manuscript first thing in the morning. I have more energy in the morning, and my mind is more active.

I’m not much into making sure I write a specific number of words a day. What matters to me is that I’m working on my book every day. But do what works for you. Go over your schedule and work out the best time to write. It could be 30 minutes, and hour, but whatever time you have, STICK to it. If something pops up that day where you can’t write at your normal time, then see what else you have to do that can wait, then use that time to write. REMEMBER: You MUST find the time to write every day.

When I first heard of Twitter I said to myself, “uh-uh. That’s too superficial.” I hate superficiality, so that was that. After I came upon articles on how other people successfully used Twitter to promote their business, I decided to sign up.

When I learned how to use it, I typed in #Writers and my genre which is #AfricanAmericanFiction and #WomanCommercialFiction Nothing came up, so I followed a few writers/authors that did come up.

It took me a while to find a group of writers/authors that I liked and it’s a continuing process. Sometimes I see who they’re following. But before I click on that follow button though, I always look at their previous tweets to see if I want to follow. I don’t like to follow people who ONLY tweet about their book. I mean WHO wants to receive tweets like this ALL the time.

I like to tweet about my progress with my book, current affairs and I retweet a lot. Sure I’ve lost followers which upset me in the beginning, as I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Now it doesn’t bother me. I’m always myself and I think that’s the best way to go.

1 or 2 are true followers. What’s important is that I follow people who I can learn from, as well as other things that I’m interested in like voice over work, fashion, art, design. I feel I’ll get more true followers when my book is published.

In my opinion, you don’t? In my opinion, writing is inherent, so you either have it, or you don’t. I express myself better in writing, thank god. I prefer this route of communication then the verbal.

Through the years, people had been impressed with my writing skills i.e. letters etc. However it didn’t click that I could do something with it. Even when I wrote my first novel, THE LEAD DANCER ALWAYS GETS FLOWERS → put in link.

Through the years I have come across article after article about learning how to write a book, and how to write creatively. I just shake my head, but it still didn’t click until a few years ago and that’s when I dived in and wrote the book.